Why Is #OpenSource Important For Jio?

Reliance Jio recently organized India Digital Open Summit at its campus. The event was organized in association with Linux Foundation and Cisco. This is possibly the first time that such an event was organized by an Indian telco. The company, which acquired more than 150 million subscribers in just 15 months of its operations has decided to play an important role in the open source ecosystem in the country.

This is extremely important for the company. Open Source is almost synonymous with innovation and is known to attract some of the best minds. While Jio has gained substantial market share since its launch, it has largely been on the back of offering freebies. Recently some media reports also suggested that most of its subscribers continue to use Jio as secondary SIM. It is crucial for Jio to come up with products and solutions which not just help it attract newer subscribers but also to come use it as there primary communications provider.

By promoting open source in the country Jio hopes to work with the developers to create products and solutions specifically for the Indian market. India has a community of developers but it is a known fact that they end up coming up with products for the western market because it is more lucrative. Jio believes it can change this by inspiring them to come up with products for the Indian market.

India also has a vibrant startup culture and is the third largest base of startups in the world. Jio hopes that the combination of startups and open source will help it to disrupt the market again with innovation.